Microsoft going back to the drawing board with Windows Genuine Advantage

Windows Genuine Advantage, the system introduced by Microsoft to try and stop illegal, pirated versions of Windows from receiving updates has been, as we have heard, hit by several snags. Last week, Microsoft launched an investigation after details were posted on the internet of how to get around WGA by pasting a JavaScript string into the web browser, and yesterday we reported that several websites were publicising another way of bypassing the technology. Now, it looks like Microsoft is going back to the drawing board with the technology, until it can come up with something more hack-proof.

Within a few hours of WIG going into action hackers had torn it apart using a fairly simple hack. This was transmitted across the Interweb and made the whole thing useless.

A Microsoft spinster told the Sydney Morning Herald this morning that Vole had sent its designers back to the drawing board on WIG.

However, he added that WIG was not designed to catch counterfeiters or prevent hacks anyway.